Civilization: Beyond Earth Impressions from E3: One. More. Turn.

E3 attendees got a front row seat of what to expect from the newest addition to the Civ series, Sid Meiers Civilization: Beyond Earth. In the theater, Firaxis Games Pete Murray gave visitors an overview. In fact, keep your eyes peeled to Civilization.com. Well soon update the site with a video version of the demo Pete gave. Itll be just like you were there with us!

Then theres the secret room, nestled deep within the 2K booth. Thats where Doug Macleod, Kevin Schultz, Lena Brenk, and Will Miller allowed press to get hands-on access and more detailed interviews going into the guts of the game.

A couple great articles that came out of those behind-closed-door sessions:

Dan Stapleton from IGN said that In the first 50 turns of Civilization: Beyond Earth I got to play at E3, those decisions are dramatically different from the ones we face in Civilization 5, and that makes it a distinct and exciting Civ game from the start.

Game Informers Daniel Tackadds I had my first chance to get some hands on with Civilization: Beyond Earth at E3 2014, and I'm impressed. If you've played Civilization 5 at all, you'll be fine to jump in immediately and dig in. That said, there's a lot of new tweaks and nuances that make the process of colonizing a planet a whole new game from its predecessors.... Civilization lovers, you can relax. Beyond Earth looks like it's going to be a smooth launch into space.

Meanwhile, Greg Tito over at The Escapist was enamored with the game. Sarah LeBoeuf also said that I left wishing I'd had more time to dig deeper... I guess I'll have to spend dozens (or hundreds) of hours getting to know Beyond Earth better when it comes out later this year. Then, in the last minutes of the show, Joshua Vanderwall snuck in an extended play session you can read about here.

Hey, were not above a little shoulder brushing and back-patting. Check out the editorial nods that Civ Beyond Earth scored during the show: